Stranded On Carrot Island

This morning, Matt went fishing and I decided to get some dishes done. The only hitch about doing dishes was that we have been out of water for a couple days now. It’s been fine up until now but the dishes were definitely starting to back up. I took all of the dishes to the back of the boat to rinse them out in the water until we could get some fresh water on them. As I was rinsing some silverware off, I accidentally knocked all of our cups in the water. We only have four cups on the boat and of course, all four fell in. I knew I had to save the cups, so I threw the swim ladder down and jumped in after them.

I was able to grab the cups pretty quickly but when I turned to swim back to the boat, I realized that the current was so strong that I couldn’t get back. The current had already pulled me about 100 yards away from the boat, so I did what my mom has always told me and swam parallel to the shore until I reached Carrot Island, the island right across from the mainland. When I got to land, I felt like I had just come out of the movie Castaway or Swiss Family Robinson. I flopped onto shore and reveled in the sand for a moment before figuring out my next move.

I decided that it would be best if I waited for Matt to get back from fishing rather than try to make an attempt to get to the boat again.While I was on Carrot Island, I got to see all kinds of interesting little creatures. Blue crabs, hermit crabs, sea slugs and mass colonies of fiddler crabs kept me company while I waited on the island. After an hour, Matt returned in the dinghy and was surprised to find me hanging out on land when he had left me on the boat. He picked me up and we headed back to the boat with our catches of the day. For Matt it was a speckled trout and I had my four cups!

After the excitement of the morning, Matt and I decided that we needed something to eat since we had missed lunch. We stopped in at the Rhumbar at Stillwater Restaurant, where Antonio works, to pick up some appetizers. Stillwater offers half price appetizers every day from 3-5 p.m. and let me tell you, their appetizers are incredible! The restaurant is a little bit more upscale but the Rhumbar has a very relaxed atmosphere. Matt and I sat under the shade of the umbrellas on the deck and ate calamari, oysters rockefeller and fried okra. A much needed break from the craziness of the day.

This hungry bystander decided he needed a snack as well!

When we finished eating, we headed back to the boat to enjoy the rest of the evening reading and relaxing. I was sitting downstairs when Matt called me up to the cockpit to see some interesting boats go by. The first boat was Steve and Linda Dashew‘s boat Windhorse. The Dashews are a world-famous sailing couple that have circumnavigated the globe numerous times and have written some of the most well-known sailing encyclopedias in the industry. Their boat, Windhorse, is massive. It was quite a sight to behold!

The second boat that went by was absolutely the best thing that you could see at the end of the day! The sun was setting and this couple went by in their wooden skiff. They had set out some lanterns and a vase of flowers and the sunset was reflecting on the water and it was absolutely beautiful! It brought to mind the famous old song “Moon River” by Henry Mancini. You can find all sorts of beauty in nature and life it’s all about the perspective that you take!